This low-cost tree program makes shade more accessible for Denver residents
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DENVER — Trucks, SUVs, school buses — if it could haul a tree, people drove it into the parking lot at the City Park Greenhouse.
A well-oiled machine of orange-vested volunteers milled about the lot, taking down names and returning with one or several trees, which the receiving parties happily loaded into their vehicles.
At this point in their life cycle, most of the trees resemble little more than large sticks, but the eager recipients who brought them home valued them for what they could provide in the future: shade.
Besides the beautification that trees bring to a neighborhood, a well-developed tree canopy — or a high density of trees in an area — provides valuable shade, which cools homes, lowers energy costs and creates an environment more suitable to grow other plants.
A 2021 study found that urban areas with dense tree canopies were 3 degrees cooler than urban areas with less green space.
With rising global temperatures, this cooling effect isn’t negligible. NASA reported 2024 as the hottest year on record — a title previously held by 2023 — with global temperatures a little more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century baseline.
“We live in this urban heat island. Everything that I try to grow really suffers because of the heat. I really wanted to create more shade spots in our yard,” said Myranda Dominguez.
Dominguez lives in Athmar Park, a southwest Denver neighborhood that historically has less trees than other parts of the city.
Athmar Park falls outside of the “inverted-L,” a shape that closely aligns with I-70 and I-25 that illustrates economic and racial disparities in the city. Neighborhoods outside of and along Denver’s inverted-L have less tree canopies than other parts of the city.
Drone footage of Elyria-Swansea, a neighborhood along the Inverted L. Video: Jeremy Moore, Rocky Mountain PBS
Montclair, a neighborhood inside the Inverted L. Video: Jeremy Moore, Rocky Mountain PBS
Many of these neighborhoods, which have a higher proportion of Black and Latino residents, also have lower household incomes compared to areas inside of the inverted-L.
People of color and lower-income households in Denver are also less likely to have air conditioning or cooling in their homes, according to a 2022 study by Healthy Air and Water Colorado.
The Park People’s Denver Digs Trees program offers free or low-cost trees to people living in neighborhoods located outside of or along the inverted-L.
Dominguez received two trees — a hackberry tree and a honey crisp apple tree — for $10 each. Trees from a nursery or plant store cost about $150 on the low end.
This year, the program distributed about 1,500 trees. Volunteers delivered trees to recipients who couldn’t pick up their trees themselves.
Mary Mouton has volunteered with the Park People for eight years and used to help deliver trees. Last year, she received her first tree from the Denver Digs Trees program. She got her tree for free because she lives in Barnum, another low-canopy neighborhood.
“It's nice to get something free, but it's also knowing that you are providing some shade for yourself, but also your community and your neighborhood are going to all benefit,” Mouton said.
Mouton is excited to watch her bur oak tree grow. She chose that kind of tree because it reminds her of growing up in Louisiana and it provides a large canopy.
“I needed some shade in this backyard. I had a silver maple that died, and when it died, it really left my backyard very hot, and things struggled to survive back here,” Mouton said.
“During the summer when the sun was straight overhead, it definitely shaded my house. That's the other reason to have [trees is] to keep things cool, so I'll save a little money on the energy cost.”
Mouton’s previous tree died when a disease spread through the area’s silver maple trees. The Park People diversify the types of trees they distribute each year to avoid major die-off from disease.
The program implements other tactics to keep the trees alive after they go home with recipients and keep the costs of tree maintenance as low as possible. The benefits of planting trees only last as long as the tree itself survives.
“I would say the costs are the highest from planting to the first two years of the tree's life,” said Mackenzie Sanders, development manager at the Park People.
The Park People sends crews to assist recipients on where and how to plant their trees. The organization offers free irrigation solutions to recipients in low-canopy neighborhoods to lower watering costs. These solutions include irrigation buckets, rain barrels and downspouts that redirect water towards the tree.
Recipients can call a tree care hotline with questions and request a house visit from an arborist.
The program offers classes for people to become “community foresters,” so they can be another resource for their neighbors to help maintain their trees. Mouton became a community forester, and now she performs health checks on her neighbors’ trees.
Mouton has lived in Barnum for 16 years. The trees that have been added to her neighborhood over the years make it feel calmer, she said, and they’ve become a point of connection between her and her neighbors.
“[The neighborhood] seems more lived in because you have trees,” Mouton said. “You have someone paying attention to the landscape. So to me, it just means people care.”
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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